After taking every class at the Culinary School of the Rockies, working and teaching there, training in France and baking wedding cakes for more than a decade, Carol Taussig knew exactly how her dream kitchen should look.
“I wasn’t interested in a trophy kitchen,” says this Boulder mom. “My goal was clean expanses. Convenience was important to me.”
Cork floors, tortoiseshell pendants, a walk-in pantry, sleek custom cabinets that include a hidden pop-up mixer stand and enclosed shelving for her extensive cookbook library, and ample views of the Flatirons and the Boulder foothills characterize this covetable new kitchen — one of 11 on this year’s 10th annual Kitchens on Fire Tour benefiting the Dairy Center for the Arts. The self-guided event on Friday and Saturday is rightly billed as a chance for cooking buffs, design devotees and remodeling addicts to peak inside cutting-edge kitchens.
“The great thing about this kitchen is it works,” says Taussig, who often finds her teenage daughters whipping up elaborate, brunch-inspired after-school snacks for their friends. “It’s just used and used and used.”
In contrast to the grand scale of Taussig’s contemporary cooking space in south Boulder, architectural designer Ulla Lange’s north Boulder kitchen inside her 2,300- square-foot, 1960s ranch-style house spotlights spatial efficiency and green building materials.
Lange’s locally-produced cabinets contain no formaldehyde or volatile organic compounds. Her counters, backsplash, cabinet doors, window covers and area rugs all boast some percentage of recycled materials.
“The idea,” says this native of Finland who obtained several of the materials for her kitchen from European suppliers, “is you can do a lot with a little space.”
Tickets for Kitchens on Fire are $20 and available at the Dairy, 2590 Walnut St. in Boulder, or online at .
And the house-tour crowd will have another chance to peruse high-end kitchens on June 8, when the Junior League of Denver hosts its fifth annual “Kitchens That Cook!” tour. Look for details at . or call 303-692-0270.
